Before I say another word, I have to thank the Lord for giving me a wife who, thirty-two years ago today, stood in front of a Baptist Minister in Jamaica and said she would stay with me forever. No relationship is easy, but she has made me who I am today. She was instrumental in my coming to the Lord as well.
Today we read Joshua 9-11.
Love and war
The Bible contains great dichotomy. It is a book about God’s love for us, but it contains tremendous amounts of violence.
Chapter 9’s opening paragraph describes the kings of nations uniting to deceive Israel’s leaders. The kings, fearing the God of Israel and knowing that all their enemies were destroyed, tricked the Israelites into a treaty.
God demands that we keep our word; therefore, after this treaty’s creation, the Israelites remained steadfast in upholding it.
The problem was it was a lie, and they should not have made this treaty. They had done so in haste, without consulting God in the matter.
We should always go to God for His leadership in our lives. That is what it means to give Him lordship. That He is in control. He is sovereign in all things.
Stay in step
When we get ahead of Him, this leads to problems.
Our church began a building program two years ago. We have prayed for several years before we started it. We have prayed for His timing to move forward. We now are trusting in His provision to complete the project.
Joshua did not do this when making that treaty with the Gibeonites.
When you are a leader, expect the assembly to grumble against you. Nothing is ever as good as people want it to be. I have had people complaining about our government cutting wasteful spending. That was what the American people voted for.
We all enjoy barbecues until someone grills our sacred cow.
The Gibeonites’ cheating and deception spared their lives, but the Israelites made them woodcutters and water carriers, a fate they would endure.
My employers have overlooked me for many promotions. A friend told me I didn’t have the family lineage that the people who were getting those promotions had. A lack of experience was not the problem. I had showed that I had the capability. My time at the company surpassed that of those promoted. But others just seemed to have the magic touch.
Based on these verses, I can see some people are just destined to be what they are.
Stop the world
God can change everything.
We see these other kings join to come up against the Israelites who have no fear of them, because they know God is with them.
Verse 10:11 states that giant hailstones, hurled down from heaven by God, killed more of them than the battles. There are two books with the title Weather Factor. One, Weather Factor: How Nature Has Changed History by Erik Durschmied; the other, The Weather Factor by David McWilliams Ludlum. They tell of multiple times when God has used weather to intervene is the outcome of battles.
This account of the sun standing still for a full day has caused disputes throughout history. Science would claim it is impossible. I agree, from a scientific perspective, the only way the sun could stand still would be for the world to stop spinning. However, with God, all things are possible. Not just all explainable things, all things.
Some say there is evidence that this happened on Oct. 30, 1207 B.C., at 4:28 p.m. and was a solar eclipse. (Jay Gotera, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, June 13, 2017) This is an explanation. Bible.org published a report on Jan. 1 2001 saying scientists at NASA had found an anomaly that would show a missing day. Snopes.com and other fact checkers refute it.
Here is my take on this. The Bible is true. God can do anything. Therefore, with no explanation of physics involved, I trust it happened. There are several accounts written in those days from different places that speak of this phenomenon.
A day like no other
We know the day turned to night when Jesus was on the cross. (See Matt 27:45-52). We know in Isaiah the shadow moved backward. We believe these things, knowing that His ways are greater than our ways. He created the universe and the laws that govern it. He can suspend them because He is God.
Verse 10:14 says there has never been a day like it, before or since.
Joshua waged war for a long time. (11:18). The Lord hardened the hearts of the other kings to resist them. (11:20). We will always find people who refuse to believe. People will resist God. Because we want to love them like Christ, we will continue to testify to them. This is how we strengthen our faith. Repetition builds muscle.
There are some things that only God can do. He reached me when I was His enemy. It wasn’t my wife’s love, however, that gave me exposure. It wasn’t the preacher’s sermons. We soon left that church. It was God. With God, all things are possible.
Many things we must do on faith. Like George Mueller, we must set the table even when we have no food, trusting that God will provide an answer. He is faithful and always will. It may not always be the answer we want.(https://www.penneydouglas.com/2012/08/10/george-mueller-hungry-orphans-fed-miraculously/)
